This invention relates to a method and apparatus for collecting solar energy.
While the innovation is particularly directed to the art of solar energy concentration and collection, and will be thus described with specific reference thereto, it will be appreciated that the innovation may have usefulness in other fields and applications.
By way of background, fundamental problems with solar energy is that the energy density is too low to be efficiently collected, and current methods for harnessing solar energy are in general 3-4 times more expensive than conventional methods for harnessing energy from fossil fuel energy sources. This in part is due to the low conversion efficiency (e.g., 7-8%) and to the high cost of silicon-based conventional photovoltaic panels. More recent technologies that use aerospace-type, high conversion efficiency (e.g., 30-40%) photovoltaic cells are extremely expensive and as such are currently not applicable to commercial applications on earth.
In order to improve the overall efficiency of the photovoltaic and thermal solar systems, several methods have been developed to concentrate solar energy. In addition, high intensity type photocells that are able to convert approximately 500-1000 suns of concentrated energy at a reasonably high efficiency (e.g., 20-35%) have been developed. Furthermore, concentrated solar energy results in high-quality heat, which is suitable for conversion into electric energy via a steam-type engine.
The cost of the concentrator-type photocells is much more expensive than conventional cells. However, the overall cost of the concentrator-type photovoltaic or thermal systems is lower than “one sun” panels. In any case, the costs associated with the various types of current solar energy harnessing systems is still considerably more expensive than conventional fossil fuels type systems.
The present invention contemplates new and improved systems and methods that resolve the above-referenced difficulties and others.